According to ESPN, former LSU Defensive Coordinator and current Texas A&M Defensive Coordinator John Chavis has filed suit against LSU, claiming that he does not owe his former employer a $400,000 buyout. Chavis claims that LSU sent him a letter demanding that he pay the $400,000 buyout on Jaunary 2nd, but that he did not give notice to terminate the contract until January 5th. The terms of his contract decreased the buyout to zero if the contract was terminated in the final 11 months. Because the notice of termination was not effective until 30 days after it was received, the contract ended on February 4th, within 11 months of the contract’s original expiration date of December 31,2015. Chavis has also named A&M as a defendant in the lawsuit because Chavis’s agreement to join the A&M staff included a clause that would make the school liable for any amount of the buyout or “liquidated damages” to be paid by Chavis to LSU.
Jason Fixelle is the Sports Highlight Editor for the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and a current second year student at Harvard Law School (Class of 2016).